Divergent
by HeyIt'sMarvin
Summary: Based off the book Divergent. Work was all that Eponine's life was. Work followed by beatings. What happens when she changes faction to escape the torture of her parents? Little does she know that by changing faction she deals with a lot worse drama and ruthless torture. - Story better than summary, I SWEAR!
1. Chapter 1

I sit in my room, gazing inquisitively at my small wardrobe. I don't own much, Abnegation aren't allowed to. We can't afford to and it's considered selfish to own a lot of items that we don't need. There's not enough money in our faction as we give a lot of it away to the factionless. But I love my wardrobe. It's a small oak thing, with my name engraved onto it 'Eponine' I left out my last name, Thenardier, as I don't want to be a Thenardier for long, I don't want to be an Abnegation for long.

I'm 16 and next week I will choose my faction.

Our county was divided into five different factions Abnegation (the selfless ), Dauntless (the brave), Erudite (the intelligent), Candor (the honest) and Amity (the peaceful).

We aren't allowed to know much about why we are in factions, that's just how things are and we aren't supposed to question things, nor do we know about the other countries. Of course there are legends, myths and horror stories about the other countries, why we are separated from the rest of the world and why we are in factions, but many don't sound at all realistic and no one really believes them anymore.

All of the factions go to school together, but are mainly separated from each other and don't generally talk to one another. We are told that it's best not to mix. Under 16's aren't officially a part of their faction yet, it is the faction that there were born in: nothing more, nothing less.

At the end of the year, when you leave school for the last time, you are 16. After you leave school there is a huge choosing ceremony where you can pick what faction you will stay in. There are never too many transfers and most people stick by their faction, but there are always quite a few transfers. People from Abnegation hardly ever change factions though, it is considered selfish to abandon your family and we were raised to be selfless… most of us.

My parents are the exact opposite of selfless and were both raised in Erudite before they transferred to Abnegation when they were 16. Erudite aren't evil, but they are smart and cunning. My parents only transferred to Abnegation because they knew how selfless Abnegation are and how easy they would be to con.

My parents are ruthless people and don't care who they have to step over to get wa=hat they want, they even beat my little brother Gavroche who is only 11.

That's why I am changing faction.

I don't know which faction I should go to yet, probably either Dauntless or Erudite.

There is a test that we are all required to take to see which faction we belong to, it does not affect which faction we have to go to as it is our choice, but it is supposed to help us with our decision, telling us who we are.

I don't believe it. How can a test tell me who I am when I don't even know myself?

The test is tomorrow and a lot of the 16 year olds are talking about how nervous they are, I don't join in the conversations for two very simple reasons. One: I'm not nervous. Two: I don't have any friends.

I don't get along with the other Abnegation girls, including my sister, Azelma. Azelma is the perfect Abnegation, always doing anything that's asked of her without any complaints. She is also 16, I'm older then her but not by much.

I'm almost 100% sure that she will choose Abnegation. She is so different from my family. My parents are similar, my brother Gavroche and I are similar and Azelma is… Azelma.

Azelma is very passive and doesn't really do anything. Right now she is sitting on her small wooden stool and staring blankly at the wall. She ignores me most of the time and never communicates with me saying that I have a bad attitude and am too selfish. She says that I'm a bad influence on Gavroche, which I admit may be true. She has stringy blonde hair that never really looks clean, even after it is washed, grey eyes that seem distant and to never really be looking at you and she always wears grey, like we all have to in Abnegation.

Gavroche is my little brother who is only 11 and is the only thing that makes me consider staying in this dump that we call a faction. Gavroche and I look about as alike as a cat and a mouse. Gav has curly blonde hair, bright blue eyes that always seem so full of hope and never truly look sad and always gets his grey clothes dirty so they appear to be brown, much to my parent's displeasure.

And I have long dark brown wavy hair and chocolate brown eyes, I look plain and don't normally stand out, but that's a good thing as Abnegation aren't allowed to stand out.

When Gavroche is 16 I am sure that he will change faction, probably to Dauntless. But what about the 5 years until he turns 16? Will he survive 5 years on his own? I had Azelma since I was very young and we used to help each other when mother and father beat us. Azelma doesn't help me anymore and doesn't let me help her. I remember a conversation with her about it.

"_Azelma, why don't you fight back like you used to? You used to be so strong. What happened?" I ask, staring at her with my brown coffee coloured eyes._

"_Mother and Father are just punishing us for what we have done. Fighting back would be disobeying them, disobeying our parents who care for us would be selfish," she replies, staring at me seriously with her cold grey eyes._

"_But we haven't done anything except be around when they are angry!" I shout, unable to control my temper. What have they done, brainwashed her?_

"_We shouldn't have been in their way," she replies without a nanosecond's hesitation._

_I stare at her for a long while, checking if she's actually serious. She is._

"_Azelma, we didn't mean to be in their way. We are just sitting around and then they come into the room that we were in first and—" I start, talking quickly unable to contain my words. That always was one of my worst faults: I can't contain what I say. If I think it, I say it. Maybe I would be good in Candor after all…_

"_We shouldn't have been sitting around when there were chores to do!" she says finally and I know that this conversation is over._

I check our old grandfather clock for the time. It reads 9:45. We should all get to bed now, as Azelma and I have a big day tomorrow and have to wake up early to go to the tests and Gav won't go to sleep unless I wish him goodnight and tuck him in.

I slip on my old, tattered whiter slippers and my white dressing gown that is far too big for me. I am still grateful for it though, as it is Winter and it provides warmth.

I quietly open the door of my room, trying my hardest to not allow it to creak and I quietly tiptoe out of my room, not wanting to rouse my parents from their drunken slumber. I tiptoe over to Gav's room and quietly tap his door, making sure not to walk straight in as he hates when I do that and always complains.

"Gav?" I whisper quietly when he doesn't answer my knock.

"Ponine?" he asks, opening his door widely to see if it's me. His face lights up like a spark when he sees me and he jumps into my arms giving me a tight hug.

"Woah there Gav, calm down a little," I say, chuckling at him, then quietly add "you don't want to wake mama and papa."

Gavroche nods in understanding and grabs my arm to pull me into his room and closes the door behind us.

"You know the routine, get into bed," I say, raising an eyebrow when he sits down on the floor, "bed, now Gav."

Gavroche groans and glares at me, sticking out his tongue before he bursts into a mad fit of giggles and jumps onto his bed.

"Are you nervous?" he suddenly asks me as he crawls under the covers.

I grab his foot from where it's poking out from the edge of it bed and tickle it, causing him to laugh. "Nervous about what?"

"You know Pony. The test," he replies as if it is the most obvious thing in the world, then kicks me in the face with the foot that I was tickling.

"Jeez Gav!" I exclaim, covering my nose and being careful not to curse in front of the young boy, "be careful. And no, I'm not nervous. Nothing to be nervous about."

Gavroche stares at me for a while, taking in what I just said. It's not normal, everybody is supposed to be nervous. "Why not?" he eventually asks. Gav is always like that, always asking awkward questions that I can't answer.

"I don't know, I'm just… not nervous. It doesn't mean that you have to go to the faction that they say you belong in," I reply.

"But everyone knows that the test is completely accurate, what if you get the faction that you don't want? You won't have to choose that faction, but you will always know that is where you truly belong. With the faction that you detest," he tells me, giving me an awkward smile when he's finished talking.

"Wow Gav, thanks for the confidence boost," I thank sarcastically.

"But Eppy, you said you weren't nervous so I just—" he begins to defend himself, but I brush him off, telling him to go to sleep. "But you haven't wished me goodnight yet!" he reminds me, waving his arms in the air when I try to leave the room.

I giggle at the young boy and tell him, "goodnight Gavroche," and I quietly open his door and tiptoe back to me and Azelma's room.

"What were you doing?" hisses Azelma when I re-enter our room.

"Telling Gavroche goodnight," I reply defensively, "it's not selfish to wish your brother goodnight."

"That is true, but you were having a conversation with him," she replies. I can't stop staring at her cold grey eyes.

"So? How's that selfish?" I ask, now very confused.

"You were keeping him awake talking and me awake waiting for you," she replies quickly.

"Oh calm down Azelma, I'm just gonna go to sleep," I say tiredly, taking off my slippers and dressing gown, "we have a big day tomorrow."

"I suppose you're right," she replies eventually.

"Night Zelma," I say, climbing onto the top bunk of the bed that Azelma and I share.

"Goodnight Eponine," she replies, lying down on her bed and closing her eyes after turning off the lights.

I fall asleep thinking about tomorrow, now irrationally worried thanks to Gavroche.

* * *

Hi guys! I worked really hard to write this, so please review!


	2. Chapter 2

I wake up early, run the sleep out of my eyes and then stretch out my arms I then sit up on my bed and lean my head to the right so I can check the time on the grandfather clock: it's five am. I have to been at school for the tests at seven am, so I still have two hours.

I climb down from bed and open up my warder to bring out a baggy grey t-shirt and long baggy grey tracksuit bottoms. I then bring out one of my two pairs of shoes, both pairs identical grey pairs of cheap trainers. I run my brush through my hair, attempting to tame my wild hair and then grab my grey hair bobble and tie my hair up in a makeshift ponytail that is almost impossible to do as there is no mirror.

We don't have any mirrors in our whole house as it is considered vain to own a lot of mirrors. All Abnegation families are permitted to own one mirror, as they can be very useful, but my father broke ours one night when he was drunk and then both he and mother told as that we don't need any mirrors as it is a 'waste of money'. _So now we have none._

"Zelma," I whisper, gently shaking her shoulders, "wake up."

"What is it, Ponine?" she asks groggily, sitting up.

"It's morning, you idiot," I reply, rolling my eyes sarcastically at her.

"I'm not an idiot!" she protests, sitting up and for a moment showing the Azelma that I used to know.

"If you say so," I grin, "but get up and then let's leave, we don't want to get in our parent's way."

Azelma would usually argue with me about that statement, but is tired so she simply nods and gets out of bed. "I'm going to be downstairs," I announce, leaving the room.

* * *

Azelma and I enter the school building, holding hands because of our nerves. "You okay?" she asks me, she's the perfect Abnegation so I can tell that she is genuinely concerned about how I am.

"I'm fine, no thanks to Vroche," I reply, smirking slightly, then I remember myself and ask, "what about you?"

"I'm obviously fine," she replies, dropping my hand and walking into the assembly hall while I jog after her. I don't go over to her once I get into the school as I know that she wouldn't want me to, so I find a table with a spare seat and sit down, the noise in the room somewhat distracting me from my nerves. People from all of the factions are here, but that hardly makes any difference at all due to the fact that we are as separated as always.

We arrived quite late, so I ended up taking one of the last seats left with the Abnegation. There is a woman announcing who is next for the test through a speakerphone. Five tests can go at once.

My name is called reasonably quickly and she says "Eponine Thenardier" after only about ten minutes of waiting. I walk over to the testing room, trying to appear calm.

I enter the room and I see a glossy black chair in the middle of the small room and computers everywhere. There is also a man dressed in black. Dauntless.

"Hello Eponine Thenardier," he says, "I'm Feuilly and I will be your tester or whatever you want to call it." There's a pause. "Could you lie down so we can begin?" he asks, motioning towards the now lowered chair. It sit on the chair. "Good, now I'll need to inject you with this," he says, bringing out a giant needle.

"Hell no!" I exclaim and Feuilly chuckles.

"It's fine, I promise it won't hurt, once the simulation is finished I will explain what you just experienced and will tell you your results," he says before injecting me with the needle.

_I'm suddenly in the school cafeteria, but there's no one there but me._

"_Hello?" I call, I'm not sure why I care so much that I'm the only one here, I just do._

_One of the school cooks suddenly appears out of thin air, she's holding a large knife and a slab of cheese. "Choose one," she commands. Her voice sounds creepily real, but has an icy cold tone to it, like the voice of a villain._

"_Why?" I ask, staring at her inquisitively._

"_Choose!" she roars._

_Knives are always useful, especially a big one like that. Cheese can be useful too… in a way. I quickly grab them both._

"_One!" I hear her screech, but then fades away._

_I eat the cheese as I never did get time to have any breakfast. A boxer dog enters out of nowhere and runs over to me, licking my hand. I immediately like this dog._

_Then, a little girl comes and the boxer immediately tries to attack her. I like this dog, but the girl looks about five._

"_No!" I scream, dropping the knife in my urgency and diving at the dog. The dumb dog bites me on the arm. I grab the little girl's hand and run, trying to get as far away from the dog as possible. Then, the girl disappears and shortly after everything goes black._

_I'm in a dark tunnel with an old lady who looks about eighty, a pregnant woman and a girl who looks about eleven. There's a knife in my hand, the knife from before. A voice tell me that I have to kill one of them to go through and I have to choose wisely as it will greatly affect my journey._

_I don't want to kill anybody, but I repeat to myself that it is just a simulation and it's not real. So I try to think about it logically._

_The pregnant woman is two lives, one of them is an unborn baby. But that if she slows us down…? And what if she went into labour here? It's possible that they could both die if that happened as I'm assuming that none of us are doctors and we won't just see one while we're travelling._

_The little girl is only young and has hardly lived at all. How could I kill her?_

_The old lady has lived most of her life and would surely die soon anyway. She seems to be the obvious choice, but she looks kind and reminds me of my grandmother. How could I kill someone who reminds me of my grandmother?_

_None are ideal travelling partners and all three of them would probably do me more harm than help, yet I can't bring myself to kill any of them._

"_What if I don't kill any of them?" I ask the voice._

_There's no answer._

"_That's what I thought," I state, "so I won't kill any of them."_

"_Kill!" the voice screeches repeatedly._

_I shut my eyes tightly and ignore the murderous voice._

_Eventually, I transport onto a bus. I'm sitting on a seat and a ragged looking man comes over to me, yelling something at me that at first I can't understand but I then recognise it as, "Eponine, please help me! Do you know this man?" he asks, holding up a picture of a man._

_I know that I recognise the man, but I don't know where from and I have this weird feeling that if I tell him then something awful will happen to me._

"_Yes," I reply, "we're very good friends."_

_The man looks confused and then asks me where the man lives. I burst out laughing for no particular reason and then give him a fake address._

_The man hesitantly thanks me, then I'm back in the testing room._

"Your test was remarkable," Feuilly gapes, "but the results were very dangerous. You must not tell anybody your results," he sighs. "You don't only belong in one faction like most people, you belong in three: Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite. People like you are called Divergent, although most Divergent only belong in two factions."

"What? Why is it dangerous? Am _I _dangerous?" I ask, my heart thumping in my chest.

"I will explain it carefully, as much as I can," he says slowly. "We usually determine your faction by ruling out all faction but one, but your results didn't allow us to do that. First, the decision: cheese or knife. Choosing knife would have been primarily Dauntless and choosing cheese would be primarily Amity. You chose both," he chuckles.

"By choosing both, that out rules Amity, as you took both when you were only offered one. I couldn't out rule Candor, as you never promised that you would only choose one. Then, you showed kindness to the dog but betrayed it when you saw it attack the little girl and risked getting injured by jumping on top of it. That was an Abnegation decision, but taking both cheese and the knife wasn't Abnegation. Next was the killing choice: you didn't kill any of them so that whole test was mainly inconclusive, so we couldn't out rule any faction by doing that."

He smiles at me in a way that I suppose he must think is reassuring. It's not.

"The last test ruled out Candor as you told the man that the man he was looking for was a close friend of yours and you then gave him a fake address. No more could be ruled out so you are Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite."

My breath hitches in my throat as I ask the question "but why is it dangerous?

"I can't tell you that now. Just go, quickly and don't tell anyone. No matter what," he commands.

"But—" I begin.

"Go!" he commands angrily.

I run off, out of the room and out of the school.

* * *

**A/N**

So… what did you think? I was really unsure about how to write this chapter, which is why it took so long (sorry!) and thank you so much for the wonderful response to the last chapter, it was amazing! So please review and if you haven't already, please follow or favourite this story if you have enjoyed it. Anyway, I'll stop boring you all now. Bye!


	3. Chapter 3

"_So," Azelma asks me, breaking the long silence as we walk into our house, "what's your result?"_

"_Zelma, you know we can't tell each other our results, you don't want to break any rules," I say, making up an excuse so I don't need to tell her, listening to Feuilly's advice._

"_Come on Eponine, it's not like it matters, I'll tell you mine," she states, staring at me with puppy eyes._

"_What's wrong with you?" I ask, narrowing my eyes suspiciously at her, "you don't break rules, you just don't."_

"_Just tell me!" she demands, her voice changing from her usual voice and becoming raspy._

"_Azelma…" I say, taking a step back and now becoming quite scared of her._

_She grabs my shoulders tightly, digging her fingernails tightly into my skin, "tell me!"_

"_Azelma! What's wrong with you?" I scream, trying to squirm my way out of her tight grasp._

"_Tell me! What faction do you belong in? do you have something to hide?" she asks me. I look into her grey eyes… but when I look at them, they're not grey, they're red._

_I screech at her and then try to claw at her face. I succeed and at first there are deep red scratch marks on her cheeks, but then her flesh isn't flesh anymore… it's silver. Metal. "What are you…?" I ask nervously._

"_That is of no concern to you," the Azelma robot says, "but are you or are you not Divergent?"_

"_What's Divergent?" I ask, trying to keep my face looking nonchalant._

"_You know that. You are Divergent and we know it, we just need to know what factions you fit in," the robot that I will no longer call Azelma states._

"_What's Divergent?" I repeat, not willing to say anything else._

"_Tell me!" it screeches, diving towards me._

_I grab a gun from my pocket that I didn't know was there, shoot the robot and then the image goes black._

I wake up with sweat pouring down my forehead, I get out from my bed and check the time: 5:00. I mentally slap myself for napping so long after waking up early. I should have been making dinner so it would be ready by the time my parents get back from work. They get back from work at half five._ Okay, so I need a meal that I can make in half an hour._

"Azelma!" I call, both for her help and to make sure that she's still here and still _her._

"What do you want Eponine?" I hear Azelma's angry voice ask.

I smile at the sound of her regular voice. "I need help with dinner. Please."

Azelma is Abnegation, she's _got _to help.

"Okay Eponine, but you really should be more organised," she says and I can hear her light footsteps walking to the kitchen so I smile and follow her.

"Thanks Zelma," I say once I enter the kitchen, "what should we make?"

"I don't know, let's check the recipe book for thirty minute meals," she suggests.

"We have a recipe book?" I ask with surprise.

"Of course, mother bought it," she says.

"Oh," I reply, not knowing what else to say in response.

Azelma gets out the recipe book and starts to flip through the pages, reading each one carefully. "What about salmon?" she asks. I shake my head and she glares at me, but then goes back to reading through the book. "Beef?" she asks after a long silence.

"Okay," I agree.

* * *

I hear the front door opening and I turn to Azelma nervously. "They're here! Is it ready?"

"It's just finished cooking. You need to distract them while I serve it out," she tells me without turning to face me and instead only keeping her eyes on the dinner

I hear loud stomping and then my father's voice yelling "Eponine! Azelma! I'm starving, dinner better be ready."

"Yeah, or you little brats will get what's coming to you!" my mother pipes in, "so will Gavroche!"

I can feel my heart beat speeding up so I run out to the hall, yelling "it's ready! But first, don't you want to hear about my day? Remember the really important test?" I ask, knowing that they don't car at all.

"Why should I care? We know that you're going to choose Abnegation anyway, so why should it matter what you get?" my mother asks.

"What if I don't choose Abnegation?" I ask daringly. I'm _not _going to choose Abnegation, but I shouldn't have told my parents that.

My father raises his fist and strikes me hard across the face, causing me to shriek in pain. "You _will _choose Abnegation!" he orders, "and you will continue to help me and your mother with scams, you got that?" he roars.

"I know papa, I know! Sorry! I was… I was just… I was just joking papa!" I scream. "I think dinner is ready now," I choke out.

"Wasn't it always ready?" my mother asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," I reply quickly and then slowly add "but what I meant was that now you're ready to go and eat it…"

They both ignore me and push their way past me into the kitchen. I say a silent prayer hoping that Azelma will have the dinner ready.

I walk upstairs to Gavroche's room to find him sitting on his bed and drawing on his drawing pad that I managed to steal for him. "Dinners ready Gav," I say.

"Ok Eppy!" Gavroche says happily, jumping up from his bed and skipping downstairs to the kitchen.

I follow Gavroche to the kitchen and sit down at the table.

"So…" Azelma says, sitting down, "the choosing ceremony is tomorrow." Father glares at her. "So I guess tomorrow me and Eponine will become official members of Abnegation, right Eponine?"

"Right!" I reply a little too loudly.

Father ignores us and changes the subject. "Have you seen Fantine's latest article? She is writing those reports about me again! Listen to this!" he picks up the paper and begins to read a part of the report. "_Once again, we have more people saying that Jacob Thenardier has conned them or harmed their family. One victim, Evelyn Marcus has told us that Jacob Thenardier has murdered her husband, scarred her two year old child and robbed them of their life savings. Unfortunately, there remains to be no proof so this monster still remains and continues his monstrosity. This man must be stopped so I beg you, if you know anything about this dangerous man, please tell us so that he can be stopped."_

He finishes reading and puts the paper down in disgust, eyeing us all and waiting for our reply.

"Well," I say, "that's terrible. But I think that me, Gav and Zelma should be getting to bed, Gav is young and it's a big day tomorrow for me and Zel."

"Yes," Azelma agrees, standing up, "we'll see you both in the morning."

"Night," Gavroche says, getting up from his seat and dragging me and Azelma upstairs.

I go to Gavroche's room and quickly give him a hug and tuck him in, then go back to my room and get changed into my pyjamas. I go to bed and try to sleep, but the thoughts of Fantine's report plague my dreams.

I knew my father scammed, but I didn't know that he killed people. How can I just change factions and run away from all of this? If I choose Abnegation I could stop him. I could help people.


	4. Chapter 4

I'm sorry, but this isn't my work. This story was written by a genius called craycrayskittlez. I have received an email that unless I give the author credit and then delete this story by a week later, my account will be removed. So thank you to whoever read this, but if you have enjoyed it, go to craycrayskittlez. Once again, I am sorry to skittlez and all of you. :(


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